


Broken Cries

by sbuggbot



Series: Umeko's Story [5]
Category: SteamWorld Quest (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Some hurt/comfort, idk about the title I just want to share the fic man
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:46:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26689144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sbuggbot/pseuds/sbuggbot
Summary: In which grief has overwhelmed.A look at a different fic of mine, "The Night the Mountains Howled", but from a different perspective
Series: Umeko's Story [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1941955
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	Broken Cries

**Author's Note:**

> I've been trying to get myself into writing again. I enjoy doing so, I've just been tired lately. *looks around at world right now* I wonder why... Anyway, I've been trying to work on some of the older ideas I've had bouncing around in my WIP folder and trying to polish them into something that makes enough sense to an outside person to publish. Evidently I wrote the first bits of this down in late December of last year. (I think I was working on writing/posting _Carminic_ at the time, actually...
> 
> Also, I've decided to stick all of my fics that involve Umeko in some way into a series/collection! Might as well do so, [much like the other canon-divergent story I've written...](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1375561)

He had known this day was coming; he had tried to accept it before it happened. Nevertheless, when it finally did happen, it hit Orik like a sack of bricks, just as hard as it had when they first learned Umeko's malady was fatal.

She was gone now. She wasn’t suffering anymore, but she was gone for good. He’d never see her breathe again. 

Things were hazy after saying his last goodbyes and stepping out of the room for the mechanics to handle her remains. Gilgamech said something not deliberately mean-spirited or hurtful but accidentally came off as insensitive. Orik couldn’t even remember what it was. Gilgamech was prone to that and normally Orik wouldn’t have bothered to pay any mind to it. 

Being as stressed and upset as he was at the moment, though, he punched Gilgamech hard enough to knock him over and immediately ran outside instead.

He ran, paying the bare minimum amount of attention to where his feet took him to not fall into a hole, nothing more. Orik just knew he needed to get away from everything. The terrain became rockier, the temperature around him dropped, and the amount of snow crunching under his feet increased, but he paid no attention to any of that. He only wanted to get away, away from the painful reality he was in and away from other people.

Whatever external force that was guiding his feet (because it certainly wasn't his brain) decided he had run far enough and Orik stopped. He held himself for a moment, then threw his head back before screaming into the heavens.

 _"Why? Why?!"_ he howled in his own language. It felt like a hundred questions were flying through his head, faster than he could find the words to express any of them. So he kept repeating that one word again and again amidst his cries. It tore at his throat and made his chest ache but it was all he could do.

Orik wasn't paying attention to how long it took, but the fight eventually left him and he fell to his knees into the snow, hoarsely sobbing and hugging himself for the meager comfort it provided.

He finally began to notice the cold...

* * *

The screaming cries had died down, but Gilgamech felt he was close enough to their source that it would be fine. He’d be able to find the last bit of his way on his own. 

And he did; he spotted Orik sitting down in the snow, holding his knees to his chest and his head down. He’d been sitting down for a while evidently since the snow had begun to build up around him. Had Gilgamech not already known the man had a damaged cooling system and ran warmer than he really should, he would have wondered how Orik wasn’t already way too cold.

He walked over, waiting to see if Orik looked up at him at the sound of his footsteps. He didn’t and only knew he hadn’t already frozen to death from the steam curling from his vents and the slight movement from breathing. "Look….I'm sorry about what I said earlier," Gilgamech said. "I'm not good with this kinda stuff…"

Orik grunted to show he had heard him, but that was the extent of the response Gilgamech got out of him. He didn’t look up at him or anything like that. 

He still waited to see if he got anything else for an answer, though. "...Either way, I'm not letting you freeze yourself in the cold."

Still not making eye contact, Orik shifted and muttered, "Alright." His voice sounded way scratchier than either of them expected. It shouldn't have been surprising; Gilgamech heard him from surprisingly far away. 

He helped the broken man to his feet and allowed him to put his arm over his shoulders, wrapping his own arm around his back in return. 

"I'm sorry for hitting you earlier," Orik said over the protests of his strained voicebox. 

Gilgamech silently squeezed his shoulder in understanding and consolation. The man wasn’t himself right now, and he didn’t really blame him. All was forgiven.

“Let’s go back to my place, you could use the company right now.”

“Okay.” Admittedly, Orik wasn’t ready to face his own house, already knowing how much emptier it would feel inside.

There was a moment where Orik hesitated, prompting Gilgamech to ask him what it was now.

"...I don't know where I am," he confessed after a long pause. He hadn't exactly been thinking clearly when he got here. The snow had long since covered his own footprints and he couldn’t make out Gilgamech’s. 

“I kept track, we live over that way.” He pointed off in one direction. Gilgamech might have resisted learning how to navigate in difficult conditions like this thinking it was unnecessary, but at the moment he was secretly glad Orik had insisted on teaching him how.

Walking back wasn’t too difficult; Orik was stiff from the cold at first but after moving for a few minutes he recovered on that front. It was quiet; Gilgamech didn’t really know what to say and Orik wasn’t in a talkative mood. He didn’t seem to have any tears left to cry for the time being.

Gilgamech still basically lived at the Temperance; he had his own quarters there and didn’t need a different living arrangement. He currently had a more active role in what went on there since he wasn’t recovering from a disabling injury or dealing with a critically ill loved one like Orik was. Also, he wasn’t in his chambers much unless he was unconscious. But he could watch over Orik for a while as he recovered from the emotional shock.

There weren’t many others out when they got into the base, but the few that were there paid them little mind. Everyone knew about Umeko’s condition and particularly how personal it was for Orik, so they gave him some space to breathe. There were other things to be concerned about right now, too. And it was late. Construction on the fortress that would hold the Behemoth was going smoothly. The Temperance might set up a base there too once it was completed. Orik wished things would stop changing on him.

Looking over at Orik while he unlocked the door, Gilgamech noticed that he must have put his fox mask on at some point without him noticing. He wasn’t shocked--Orik had a handful of spells that enabled him to put on and switch masks easily, and he also had a tendency to hide his face when he got overwhelmed. 

Gilgamech didn’t see any change in Orik's disposition now that he was inside--at least from what he could see from the mask. Gilgamech wasn't sure why he thought so. At least he was somewhere safe, now. 

A moment where Gilgamech watched Orik stare blankly at the wall. “...Are you just going to crash on the couch or something?”

“Yeah,” Orik replied with a tone that said no other reasonable option was crossing his mind.

“Ok then,” he said. “You know where stuff is, I guess I’ll go sleep or something.” He figured he ought to stay nearby in case Orik’s state of mind slipped again or something.

“Thank you.”

Gilgamech stopped mid-stride and looked back at Orik. He wasn’t sure what exactly he was being thanked for; all of this wasn’t the sort of thing Gilgamech normally did. The masked man was staring at the window and didn’t seem intent in elaborating his thanks, just giving them. Probably too much on his mind, Gilgamech reasoned.

“Um, ok. Goodnight, Orik.” And then he left the man to his own devices.

**Author's Note:**

> idk why but the moment I finished composing this my brain turned into pudding. I don't even like pudding


End file.
